Barack Obama and Donald Trump in Poland – media coverage of visits of American presidents in Polish daily press Cover Image

Barack Obama i Donald Trump w Polsce – obraz medialny wizyt amerykańskich prezydentów w polskiej prasie codziennej
Barack Obama and Donald Trump in Poland – media coverage of visits of American presidents in Polish daily press

Author(s): Monika Góra
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Media studies, Political Theory, Communication studies, Politics and communication, Politics and society
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: media coverage; content analysis; Polish daily press; Barack Obama; Donald Trump

Summary/Abstract: Visits by American presidents in Poland are important, socio-political and media events. This fact was the motivation to conduct research on media presentation of the visits of two American presidents – Barack Obama in 2011 and Donald Trump in 2017 – to Poland which were presented in Polish daily newspapers. The content analysis was based on opinion-forming titles: “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Rzeczpospolita” and “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna”, and tabloids: “Fakt” and “Super Express”. The aim of the paper is to show the differences in how selected dailies cover two visits and explain where these differences might come from. The research hypothesis assumes that the ideological profile of chosen daily press determines media image of the American presidential visits in Poland, and that the significance of press materials may impact the formation of readers’ views and opinions about leaders of the USA. The author tried to answer the following questions: do the selected titles show bias against any of the presidents?, is the narration of daily newspapers similar to the tabloid press?, and do they undergo tabloidization? The article consists of five parts. The first part discusses the special relationship between Poland and the USA and the perception of American presidents’ visits to Poland. The second section describes agenda-setting, which is the theoretical framework for this study. The third part of the article describes the research methodology, which is based on content analysis. The fourth section is a description of the study of materials published in Polish daily press. The article ends with a summary of the study results. The bias was demonstrated in “Gazeta Wyborcza” (numerous articles, critical of Donald Trump), “Fakt” (numerous articles with positive attitude towards Barack Obama and Donald Trump) and “Super Express” (numerous satirical articles about Barack Obama). In the context of the discussed issues, daily newspapers did not make their narration similar to tabloid press and did not succumb to the tabloidization of media.

  • Issue Year: 29/2022
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 87-103
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Polish